The Billionaire Takes a Bride
Page 1
Copyright © 2015 Jessica Clare
Cover image © L.F/Shutterstock
The right of Jessica Clare to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by arrangement with InterMix,
A member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC,
A Penguin Random House Company
First published in this Ebook edition in 2015
by HEADLINE ETERNAL
An imprint of HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP
Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library
eISBN 978 1 4722 2961 8
HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP
An Hachette UK Company
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www.headlineeternal.com
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
About the Author
Praise for Jessica Clare
By Jessica Clare
About the Book
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Epilogue
Meet the Billionaires and the Bridesmaids
Welcome to the Billionaire Boys Club
Find out more about Headline Eternal
About the Author
Jessica Clare is the New York Times bestselling author of the Bluebonnet series, as well as the Billionaire Boys Club novels. She also writes under the names Jill Myles and Jessica Sims, and has a day job in finance. Jessica lives in Texas with her husband and cats, spending her time writing, reading, writing, playing video games, and doing even more writing.
Follow her on Twitter @_JessicaClare or join her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AuthorJessicaClare.
Be dazzled by Jessica Clare’s passionate love stories . . .
‘Just thinking about it puts a smile on my face . . . In short, this is a really fun, entertaining, engaging book, and I can’t wait to read (and reread) the other billionaires’ stories’ Heroes and Heartbreakers
‘Saucy, blistering and emotionally endearing . . . sizzling good fun. With broad strokes and wry detail, Clare creates characters who are unapologetically individual and wonderfully unpredictable’ Romantic Times
‘An awesome quick read that touched my heart and stirred my spirit. Buckle up and take a ride – you’ll enjoy every peak, valley, twist, and turn’ Cocktails and Books
‘Fun and sexy and flirty . . . Stranded With A Billionaire has reignited my love of the billionaire hero’ The Book Pushers
‘Sizzling! Jessica Clare gets everything right in this erotic and sexy romance . . . You need to read this book!’ Romance Junkies
‘A cute, sweet romance . . . A fast, sexy read that transports you to the land of the rich and famous’ Fiction Vixen
‘Fast-paced, passionate, very sexy . . . A unique, modern-day fairy-tale that’s as steamy as it is entertaining’ Harlequin Junkie
‘A fun, flirty, and sexy read . . . an emotionally rich love story’ Fresh Fiction
By Jessica Clare
Billionaire Boys Club Series
Stranded With A Billionaire
Beauty And The Billionaire
The Wrong Billionaire’s Bed
Once Upon A Billionaire
Romancing The Billionaire
One Night With A Billionaire
Billionaires And Bridesmaids Series
The Billionaire And The Virgin
The Taming Of The Billionaire
The Billionaire Takes A Bride
About the Book
Billionaire Sebastian Cabral loves his family, he just doesn't love their reality TV show, The Cabral Empire. So when his ex-girlfriend tries to rekindle their relationship on camera, Sebastian decides that drastic measures are in order.
By day, Chelsea Hall is a happy-go-lucky, rough and tumble roller derby skater. By night, she's still living in fear of her past. Most of all, she just doesn't want to be alone. And she really, really doesn't want to date.
So when their mutual friends' upcoming wedding turns Chelsea and Sebastian into fast friends, they realize they can solve both of their problems with one life-changing lie: a quick trip down the aisle. But with one kiss, Chelsea and Sebastian suddenly realize that their pretend relationship is more real than either of them expected . . .
After more divine romance? Don't miss the rest of the Billionaire And Bridesmaids series: The Billionaire And The Virgin and The Taming Of The Billionaire, or take a spin with the scorching-hot Billionaire Boys Club starting with Stranded With A Billionaire.
Chapter One
“Your mother has cancer.”
Sebastian Cabral rubbed his mouth in shock. He didn’t know what to think. Dread and worry shot through him, and he pictured his mother and how devastated she must have been when she found out the terrible news. “Damn it. That’s horrible. Why didn’t she say anything to me?”
“It’s this season’s story line.” His lawyer had the grace to look embarrassed. He nudged a pile of paperwork toward Sebastian and pointed at a paragraph. “It’s detailed here on page sixteen. ‘Mama Precious, aka Elizabeth Cabral, will undergo exploratory treatments for cancer. She will seek out all kinds of remedies, from holistic spas to shamanistic treatments.’ I’m told she will be given an all clear by the time the season finale rolls around. It’s a scare intended to drum up ratings.”
Sebastian sat back in his chair, unable to believe what he was hearing. His jaw dropped. “Wait. You mean to tell me that a cancer story is being fabricated by the network and she’s fine? All so she can go rub crystals on herself with a shaman?”
“That is what I have been told, yes.”
“That’s fucking atrocious.” He couldn’t believe it. Making up cancer? Really? When so many people out there had cancer or a loved one suffering from it? When his own grandmother had died of the disease? It was low. Lower than low.
That was reality TV for you.
Sebastian was ensconced in his lawyer’s office in downtown Manhattan, reviewing contracts and information for the upcoming season of The Cabral Empire. It didn’t matter that he absolutely refused to be on the show. The rest of his family was on it, and therefore Sebastian was pulled into the media frenzy surrounding them.
The fact was, his family had made themselves famous by being ridiculous and over the top on a reality TV show. His father was a Portuguese eighty-year-o
ld billionaire with inherited money, aka “Daddy Money.” His mother was a fiftyish ex-model with a plastic surgery addiction and loopy hobbies, aka “Mama Precious.”
He didn’t call them that. The rest of the world did, but Sebastian still preferred Mother and Father like a normal fucking human.
But his mother had always wanted to be famous. It wasn’t enough to be an ex-model married to a billionaire nearly twice her age. She craved notoriety. By the time Sebastian had hit his midtwenties, his mother had gotten into contact with a TV producer looking for new reality TV shows. Mrs. Cabral had immediately volunteered her family. The first season was all about his mother purchasing a new home for the family in NYC and her shopping trips to spend her husband’s money. It was stupid, nothing-going-on TV that quickly consumed her daily life. Sebastian’s younger siblings hadn’t been spared the TV show, either. Dolph and Cassie went to local colleges instead of going away for school, all so they could stay on the show. Amber was homeschooled by a wacky tutor. Even the maid was a staple on the damn thing.
It was asinine. His family members were a bunch of nobodies who happened to have money and did stupid things to spend it. It shouldn’t have been a success. It should have appeared on the air and quickly disappeared again.
As fate would have it, The Cabral Empire was a massive cable hit.
Suddenly the Cabral family was showing up at ritzy premieres, hawking cheap products, and showing up on the covers of tabloids. It didn’t matter how embarrassing or egregious it was—if it involved notoriety, a Cabral was on it like flies on shit. Sebastian was the only one who didn’t want anything to do with it. He found it ridiculous and more than a little humiliating.
The problem was, the more he resisted the show, the more the show’s producers and fans seemed determined to bring him in. Cameos of him visiting his mother showed up on TV spots. Tabloids speculated about his “mystery” and why he wouldn’t be on the show. His picture and the fact that he was an heir to his father’s billions meant that he got more attention than he wanted. The world wanted more of the sexy, aloof billionaire Cabral heir.
Said heir wanted nothing to do with the world.
So here he was, meeting with an entertainment lawyer to go over what they could and couldn’t show about Sebastian on The Cabral Empire. No promo would be allowed to include Sebastian. No images. No marketing, and certainly no merchandise. Definitely not any story lines that would involve him. It was bad enough that if he showed up to visit family, someone ambushed him with a camera.
He could have said no footage at all. None. Zero. Zip. But the network had insisted, and his mother had wept and cried and told him that the TV executives were threatening to pull the plug if he didn’t have the occasional walk-on. So he’d consented, because even though his parents were approaching full-on crazy, he loved his family.
But cancer? That was a new low. “I refuse to be part of any sort of cancer story line. Absolutely, positively not. In fact, the less I’m in the show, the better.” It hadn’t mattered that he’d been in three entire minutes of last season; it had been enough to ruin his social life for a long damn time.
Now Sebastian wanted out.
“I’m afraid that the cancer story line is not the only story line that could be problematic,” his lawyer said. The look on his face was nothing short of pained.
Sebastian groaned again. His head pounded. “What on earth could they possibly be dragging out of the gutters that could be worse than a fake cancer scare?”
“They’re bringing Lisa back.”
Oh, damn it all.
Lisa Pinder-Schloss was his ex from several years ago, back when the show had first come on the air. She was a model and an ex-NFL cheerleader with a lovely face and an even better body. She was fun and lively. The thing that had come between them? The Cabral Empire. She wanted to be on the show regularly, and he did not. Consequently, he found himself being surrounded by cameras when they went out on dates.
They broke up not long after that. Lisa became a regular on the show for a season or two, and then went on to “other things.” He guessed those “other things” hadn’t panned out and now she was returning. “Why would they be bringing her back?”
“Her story line is that she wants a reunion with you.” The entertainment lawyer pointed at the bullet point on the contract. “You know what that means.”
Sebastian groaned and buried his head in his hands. “Why is it that I have a fleet of lawyers and I can’t manage to keep my damn face off of TV?”
“Because, Mr. Cabral, you signed a very egregious contract when the show started, and they have indefinite, but very specific clauses that allow the show to film you when you are present with another regular. And since you signed that, I can’t change it.”
He gave the lawyer an annoyed look. “I didn’t think my own mother was going to hose me.”
“Your mother is faking cancer for ratings.”
Damn it, the man had him there. “She wasn’t like this a few years ago. I swear she wasn’t.” Or else he’d never have signed what they put in front of him to make his mother happy. He’d thought the show would be on some ass-end network for a few weeks and then disappear.
He wasn’t that naïve anymore.
“I’m afraid you’re going to be a staple this season whether you want to or not. The cancer thing you can probably skate out of, but the Lisa story line means you’re bound to get confronted several times for them to film.”
Sebastian groaned. He could just imagine. “What are my options?”
“Leave New York until they finish filming. They can’t catch you on camera if you aren’t here.”
He shot the man an irritated look. “I’m not going to hide from the world for months. My friends and my businesses are here.” Hell, he was going to an engagement celebration tomorrow night. He was sure as hell not going to bring that up in case his lawyer had loose lips and liked to spill details to the show’s staff. That had been a problem with the last entertainment lawyer he’d hired . . .
. . . Who was also now a staple on the damned show.
“Visit family in Portugal? See the roots? Doesn’t your father have a castle there?”
“Two, actually.” Sebastian drummed his fingers on the table, thinking. Then he shook his head. “They’ll follow me there if I go.”
“Then I would suggest preparing for a new round of media.”
He stared at the paperwork in the lawyer’s hands and fought the urge to rip it up out of annoyance. “What if I got a restraining order against Lisa?”
“You think that won’t show up in the papers? It’d be a media frenzy. And the show would milk it for all its worth.”
Okay, he had a point.
“You need to think up an alternative,” the lawyer said bluntly. “Be creative. Unless you want to get back together with Miss Pinder-Schloss?”
“God, no.” Lisa had gone from being a sweet if somewhat clueless girl to a woman obsessed with her appearance and making sure her every moment was documented by the paparazzi. “Lisa and I were a momentary thing. The only reason it lasted longer than a few dates was because we ran into my mother while she was being filmed.” It was a total setup, which he hadn’t known at the time.
Again, he wasn’t quite that naïve anymore.
“Then you need something that’s going to get this woman off your case.”
He did. But what?
* * *
He was still pondering his options as he finished his meeting and had his driver take him home to his town house. Most of the rooms were artfully bare and tastefully decorated in a minimalist fashion. He’d hired decorators for that, the best that Manhattan boasted. But he bypassed the rest of the attractively decorated house and headed straight to the study, which he liked to call his “thinking room.” He kept the door locked so the maids wouldn’t wander in to straighten up, or pick through his art.
Because, like every seven-year-old boy in the world, Sebastian Cabral had liked to dra
w. Unlike every seven-year-old boy in the world, he’d never grown out of it. His family, more interested in making money or swanning about with society, had never really quite understood his need to “doodle.”
But for Sebastian, working with his hands released a lot of anxiety. He sculpted sometimes, and every now and then he painted. Mostly, though, he sketched. Not landscapes or fantastical monsters or anything like that.
Sebastian liked to sketch women. He supposed it was the red-blooded male in him that appreciated the female form in all its aspects—thin, waifish girls with big eyes, or curvy, buxom women with big smiles and bigger breasts. Sebastian drew them all.
He sat down at his drafting desk and pushed aside a stack of papers full of half-finished sketches. More sketches lined the walls of the small room, pinned up in a haphazard fashion. He pulled out charcoals and a new sheaf of paper and began to outline the gentle curve of a woman’s cheek, then began to fill in eyes, a nose, and a hairline. No one in particular, though with the right hairstyle, this could be Bettie Page. He just liked to let loose and draw. Sometimes, when he dated a woman, he’d draw her.
He’d never drawn Lisa, though.
Didn’t feel the urge to start now, either.
Chapter Two
Chelsea Hall adjusted her knee pads and then checked her elbow pads and wrist guards one last time. She wiggled her ankles, testing them, but her skates were tight. Game on.
Next to her, Kid Vicious smacked Chelsea on her purple helmet. “You ready to kick some ass, Chesty LaRude?”
“Born ready, baby,” Chelsea responded, and elbow-checked her.
Kid Vicious grunted. “You don’t play fair.”
“Fair’s for the after-party.”
The music started and the announcer’s voice reverberated through the arena. “Let’s give a warm welcome for the Broadway Rag Queens!”
With a cheer, Chelsea and the girls on her roller derby team strutted out onto the track to Destiny’s Child’s “Bootylicious.” They skated several laps, flexing their arms and showing off. One by one, the roster was called out.